Large Ensembles
The cycle of ESMUC’s large ensembles takes place twice a year, usually at the end of the academic periods, when the school’s various formations showcase the results of their work in a series of concerts that meet the typical conditions and requirements of professional practice.
Programme 2023-2024
1st term
| Day | Ensemble |
|---|---|
| 13/12/23 | Big Band |
| 15/01/24 | Early Music Ensemble |
| 17/01/24 | Esmuc Jazz Project |
| 18/01/24 | Bottega d’Òpera |
| 19/01/24 | Catalan Folk Music Ensemble |
| 25/01/24 | Symphonic Orchestra |
| 29/01/24 | Cobla |
| 31/01/24 | Band |
All the performances featured in this cycle are recorded in high quality and shared on the Large Ensembles play list on the ESMUC YouTube channel.
ESMUC’s stable ensembles
Camerata ESMUC Quartet Casals
The Camerata is an amplified Quartet Casals, with Vera Martínez, Abel Tomás, Jonathan Brown and Arnau Tomás acting as the first music stands of the ensemble. The ensemble, which brings together undergraduate and master’s degree students of classical and contemporary music performance, is a string orchestra characterised by working with the complicity of a chamber ensemble in an orchestral format.
Big Band
One of the main characteristics of this Large Ensemble is the learning process of its members, from the first days of rehearsal to the staging. The interpretative skills are demonstrated in each course and are multiplied in the final concert. The Big Band has been conducted in previous editions by musicians such as Maria Schnneider, Tim Garland, Juan Albert Amargós, Joan Díaz and Perico Sambeat, among others.
Bottega d’Opera
The Bottega d’Opera made its debut at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in 2021. It is a workshop that aims to recover, restore and stage opera heritage in collaboration with other cultural institutions such as the TNC and the Teatre de Sarrià. Musicological research carried out by ESMUC students and faculty has shed new light on preconceived ideas of operatic performance, allowing audiences to experience some works for the first time.
Instrumental Ensemble
This ensemble was created with the aim of broadening the musical knowledge of the students by studying in depth the works of the most prominent composers of the 20th century and the most current musical trends. It is one of the most recent large ensembles at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya and belongs to the Department of Classical and Contemporary Music.
Large Flamenco Ensemble
The acceptance of flamenco as an academic subject and its inclusion in conservatories and universities leads us to open up and explore new concepts and methodologies in its advancement and research.
It is currently a genre that has several levels and fields of training within the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya, as demonstrated by the students, both in the undergraduate and the official Master’s degree in flamenco performance, who participate in this large ensemble.
Cobla
This Grand Ensemble aims to train students in the great concert music for copla, consisting of sardanas, free format works, works with soloists and fusion works with other disciplines such as Jazz, Modern Music or Roots Music. The Cobla draws on a large part of the works of the composers who have written and continue to write for this ensemble, also providing a view of the future for the training of the students.
Large Symphonic Ensemble
The ESMUC Symphony Orchestra is the ensemble with the most instruments and one of the longest trajectory in the School. The orchestra has been conducted by renowned figures such as Diego Naser, Jordi Mora, Francisco Prat, Lutz Kohler and Ernest Martínez Izquierdo, and has performed from the most representative works of classical music, such as Gustav Mahler’s fifth symphony, to the most contemporary repertoire.
ESMUC Jazz Project
With a line-up made up of Jazz and Modern Music students, but also incorporating instruments from other fields, Esmuc Jazz Project is committed to transversality and multidisciplinarity. Its proposals revolve around the music of leading figures in the world of jazz such as Keith Jarrett, Ornette Coleman, Carla Bley, Chick Corea and Wayne Shorter, as well as presenting the original work of the directors of the group: Francesc Capella, Joan Díaz, Joan Monné, Joan Sanmartí and Lluís Vidal.
Large Ensemble of Early Music
Promoted by the Department of Early Music and conducted by its teaching staff, this ensemble has performed at the Barcelona Early Music Festival and in different emblematic venues in the city, such as the Pedralbes Monastery and the Church of Sant Felip Neri, among others. The students who take part in this ensemble come from the Early Music Speciality and the University Master’s Degree in Early Music Performance offered by ESMUC in collaboration with the University of Barcelona (UB).
Large Ensemble of Traditional Music
The ESMUC’s Grand Ensemble of Traditional Music mixes the instruments taught in the Catalan Traditional Music modality (gralla/dulzaina, cornamusa and diatonic accordion) with those from other fields, in ensembles that are a clear demonstration of crossbreeding and transversality. Throughout its history, this great ensemble has been conducted by musicians such as Eliseo Parra, Kepa Junker, Jordi Molina, Marcel Casellas and Ximo Caffarena.